President Together with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, he conducted an analysis of the state of affairs in the economy in order to determine priority internal factors of economic growth, said presidential press secretary Alexei Gromov. The talk, in particular, was about the use of breakthrough technologies in industry, the active attraction of domestic capital for these purposes, the improvement of banking mechanisms, modern stock market institutions and other opportunities.

CLUBS Jim Avignon (Berlin) and Nova Huta (Hamburg). Opening of an exhibition of paintings by the famous artist, designer and musician Jim Avignon You can`t always want what you get and a concert of his friend Gunter Reznisek's band playing lo-fi pop. In addition to his paintings, Jim will show cartoons he made for a German children's channel, and will also treat guests to home-cooked dishes - this part of the program is traditional for the “Club on Brestskaya” and is called “Artistic Food”.

The Cypriot authorities do not believe that the “owner of Nevsky Prospekt” could have been robbed On Wednesday night, the bodies of former State Duma deputy Vyacheslav Shevchenko and president of the Nord financial group Yuri Zorin were delivered to St. Petersburg from Cyprus. On March 24, they were killed in a cottage near the city of Paphos, and this news caused a lot of noise in the northern capital.

Russia is concerned not so much about NATO bases as about the US On April 2, Romania is preparing to celebrate the country's official admission to NATO in a grand manner. For the feasts, the Romanian army buys 125 thousand liters of beer, 45 thousand bottles of wine, thousands of bottles of champagne. Vodka, although its country of origin looks askance at NATO expansion, will still decorate holiday tables along with whiskey, albeit in the form of “Finland”, “Absolute” and Red Square.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has once again demonstrated its ability to make unexpected decisions. Although many analysts had expected that with oil prices at a 13-year high, the cartel would delay its decision in February to cut production quotas by 1 million barrels per day from April 1 in order to “cool” prices, oil ministers stood their ground At yesterday's summit, we nevertheless agreed to implement the previously reached agreements.

The just-released, first issue of the Art-Chronicle for the current year declares as its main theme “Group portrait of Russian art of 2004” - in fact, a rating of Russian artists, both living and ever-memorable. The results, needless to say, are impressive: Aivazovsky is in 21st (last) place, Kustodiev is in 1st place.

Viktor Tikhonov decided to resign The head coach of CSKA and the Russian national hockey team, Viktor Tikhonov, resigned from the post where he worked for 27 years. Having voluntarily left the position of coach of the army team, Tikhonov nevertheless retained his position as president and consulting coach of the hockey club, while continuing to lead the national team.

Pensioners' money goes to the stock market Today, after the transfer of pension savings to management companies is completed, this money will enter the securities market.

Kyiv fears American intervention Yesterday in Kyiv, during the opening of the forum of public organizations “Human Rights in Elections,” the famous American financier and philanthropist George Soros was thickly doused with mayonnaise. According to other reports, the overseas tycoon was stained with office glue. The hooligan act was carried out by members of the Brotherhood organization, which is headed by the notorious politician and journalist Dmitry Korchinsky.

They scored like the Greeks, but even let in the Bulgarians The Russian team rehearsed its last match in the group stage of Euro 2004. Yesterday, with a control game against the Bulgarian national team in Sofia, the Russian team began preparations for the June championship. This was the first and, perhaps, the last opportunity to assess the real strength of the Russian team before the continental championship.

The fate of the Israeli government will be decided in Washington Ariel Sharon's visit to the United States, scheduled for April 14, has caused an intensification of political battles within the country. The focus was on the plan for the Israelis to withdraw from Gaza and unilaterally secede from the Palestinians as a whole.

Warsaw offers the Alliance a new strategy Poland is an example for the seven newcomers now joining NATO. Poland joined the Alliance along with the Czech Republic and Hungary five years ago and turned out to be the most zealous, clearly irritating the European old-timers of the bloc with its devotion to its main intercessor - the United States. It was Poland that pulled the Baltic countries with it, and now it is also calling on the leadership of the Alliance not to close its doors to Ukraine.

Beijing has tightened the visa regime for Americans. This is a response to the fact that Chinese citizens are now required to have their fingerprints taken when applying for a US visa. From now on, US citizens with diplomatic and service passports who plan to visit China on personal business are required to obtain a regular single-entry visa, for which they will be charged a fee.

Conference of donor countries opened in Berlin Yesterday at the Intercontinental Hotel in Berlin, representatives of about 50 countries, as well as the UN and international financial institutions, began discussing the prospects for assistance to Afghanistan. “Afghanistan and the international community - a partnership for the future” is the title of this two-day conference, the main theme of which should be raising funds for the post-war organization in this country.

A coach has appeared in the Russian men's national team The country's men's team has finally found a new head coach. Yesterday at a meeting of the executive committee of the Russian Basketball Federation (RBF), 36-year-old Sergei Babkov, a former player of the national team, now the coach of Novosibirsk Lokomotiv, was approved for this post, which has been vacant since October last year.